The University of Melbourne is a step closer to staff strikes after the National Tertiary Education Union got the green light to ballot members about industrial action.
Union members will be asked to vote on eight forms of industrial action, including not doing any marking, not applying penalties to students who submit late work, work stoppages of up to 24 hours and indefinite stoppages.
Source: Melbourne University one step closer to strikes as industrial action vote green-lighted
Since the late 1970s, strike action and union membership have been declining steadily in most Western democracies. New research finds that one key reason is the working class’s increasing dependence on credit.
Why isn’t this happening here?
A total of 48,000 are on strike, making this the largest and most important strike in the history of American higher education. As labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein says, it could not only raise the incomes and the status of those who work in an “industry” that now employs more workers than the federal government, but also transform higher education itself.
Union mine workers in Alabama are taking part in a historic strike, the first of its kind in four decades, accusing Warrior Met Coal of first exploiting its workers and now inspiring violence against them on the picket line. Freelance journalists are on the ground and local news has been covering the story from the start — yet more than three months into the strike, the historic labor action has not received so much as a single mention from CNN, Fox News, or MSNBC, according to a new analysis from Media Matters.
When ninety United Workers Union members went on strike on June 4 at General Mills in Rooty Hill, in Sydney’s outer-west, they knew they were up against a powerful international corporation. But they also began to sense their collective power as workers and union members. “We don’t care how long this lasts,” one of the striking workers told me. “We’re here for as long as it takes. Another day longer, another day stronger!” On June 25, the workers at General Mills celebrated a remarkable victory. The company had stubbornly refused to countenance their claims, offering them an average pay rise of just 1.5 percent, offset by cuts to their conditions and new clauses that could see them having to take on more weekend work. After three weeks on strike, the global food giant backed down, offering a wage rise of 9 percent over three years without any trade off in conditions. The workers also won a $1,500 bonus and protection for all labor hire casuals and contractors who participated in the strike.
Source: Workers in Australia Launched a Strike Against General Mills. They Just Won.
In a statement, 350 gave the numbers:
From 20th to 27th of September, 1.4 million people took to the streets in Germany, over 1 million in Italy, over 600,000 in Canada, over 500,000 in the United States, 350,000 in Australia and another 350,000 in the United Kingdom, 195,000 in France, 170,000 in New Zealand, 150,000 in Austria, 50,000 in Ireland, 70,000 in Sweden, 42,000 in the Netherlands, 20,000 in Brazil, 21,000 in Finland, 15,000 in Peru, 13,000 in Mexico, 13,000 in India, 10,000 in Denmark, 10,000 in Turkey, 10,000 in Pakistan, 6,000 in Hungary, 5,000 in South Korea, 5,000 in Japan, 5,000 in South Africa, more than 3,500 in Chile, 3,000 in the Pacific, 2,000 in Singapore and much more, since many locations are still striking and the final count is not yet confirmed.
“The week of Global Climate Strikes is on par with the 2003 anti-Iraq war protest as one of the largest coordinated global protests in history,” 350 said.
Hundreds of thousands of air passengers face potential disruption to their Easter Holiday plans as ABF and other Immigration Department officials threaten to walk off the job at airports and freight terminals around the country on Easter Thursday.
Source: Border Force officials plan Easter airport shut-down
Disruptions are expected at Australia’s international airports today as thousands of Border Force officers stop work.
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